In the wake of the 911 terrorist attacks everyone was talking about defending our democracy. No question, but it made me think: How many people actually know who their congressman is? How many people even bother to vote? What can I do as a journalist to ensure voters are engaged in our democracy and lawmakers are accountable to them? The answer was Capitol News Connection, a news organization I created and have run since 2002. It makes politics relevant to people's daily lives: It focuses on the issues not the horse race, and how deals and decisions impact locally. It also directly connects citizens to their lawmakers via interactive web tools such as 'Ask Your Lawmaker', a web widget that lets users ask and vote for questions CNC's award winning journalists use their accredited daily access to Senators and Representatives to get answered each day. We have found that asking the questions other media avoid - and letting citizens dictate the news and policy agendas - makes our government more accountable, transparent and responsive. CNC is now heard by 3.1m people on 200 public radio stations, and makes a difference every day.
I want news to be a 'long-tail' conversation, involving users in every step of the content generation process to provide relevant, contextual and exciting 360 degree networked coverage.
Melinda Wittstock is the Founder & CEO of Capitol News Connection (CNC), the award-winning news service that is emerging as the only source for original 'shoe-leather' reporting from Congress locally customized and made relevant to people where they live and work.
Wittstock founded CNC in 2002, creating an innovative and efficient new business model for news gathering that ensures quality custom content at compelling price points. CNC is now heard by 3.1 million people (Arbitron: Spring 2009) on 200+ public radio stations. Wittstock created "Power Breakfast", a 'jolt of political caffeine' airing daily on WAMU 88.5 FM in DC.
She also created 'Ask Your Lawmaker', an interactive web service and customizable widget. Users ask questions and vote on the ones they most want CNC journalists to pose to lawmakers. Audio answers are uploaded for users to listen to, comment and share.
A TV, radio and print journalist with 20 years' experience in New York, Washington, and London, her reporting, hosting and editorial management work spans BBC Radio and TV News, ABC News, NPR, MSNBC/CNBC, as well as London's Times, Guardian, and Observer newspapers.
Brought up in New York and Toronto, she graduated with an Honors B.A. in political science from McGill University. She joined the London Times as a correspondent when she was 23 (she became the paper's award-winning media correspondent and later a columnist), before moving to CNBC Europe in 1994 as a financial news anchor. In 1995 she became a prime-time hosts/anchors of BBC World TV, where she covered most of the big breaking news stories of the time. In 1998, joined ABC News to anchor World News Now and World News This Morning. She reported for BBC Radio and TV from New York, created the nightly news magazine USA Direct, and hosted the half-hour interview program, Hard Talk. She anchored at MSNBC and CNBC and wrote for the London Observer.
She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband Mark McDonald, their children Sydney and Finn and golden retriever Josie.
